AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
ALISA SHEINSON
– ORGANIC SERIES –
“The wide open eyes and the beating of our hearts open our imagination”
– Alisa Sheinson.
When Sheinson began studying design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design(Jerusalem, Israel), she was immediately drawn to the design of signage and guidance systems. She has operated her own studio for nearly 30 years, working with designers from various fields such as interior design, graphic design, architecture, and signage. Since she began taking on interior design projects in public spaces approximately 14 years ago, the interior design of public and commercial spaces has become her primary field, both in Israel and abroad. Among her major projects are interior and signage design in office buildings, in which she devotes special attention to the topic of light.
“I have always used light and lighting, and for twelve years I have been creating light sculptures in the spaces that I design, which often become the main component of the project. I told myself that if I could design them, I could also create them. Today it is accepted, but in the past, it was not done. For me, it is a pleasure to create new and different things. Sometimes they are even a bit too sophisticated. Sometimes it can take me a second to come up with an idea for something I want to do, and I end up spending half a year making it happen.”
– Alisa Sheinson.
ALISA SHEINSON. Bloosom. Made of aluminum, LED light, epoxy, and resin, this handcrafted piece is a quotation of nature plants and brings it to life using lit, 3D molds of natural elements. 40 x 40 cm. © Art Market Magazine
AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
ALISA SHEINSON
ALISA SHEINSON. Pink Bloosom. Made of molding kaktos in epoxy and resin, pink background lighted by leds elements. 40 x 40 cm © Art Market Magazine
Art Market: Thank you for the Interview, Alisa! You are considered one of the most creative and successful interior designers in Israel, operating your own studio for over 30 years and working with architects from various fields such as interior design, graphic design, architecture, and signage.
Let’s start from the beginning. You have created impressive interior design projects of public and commercial spaces in various locations around the world. How would you explain the connection between interior design to your relatively new field of practice, fine art light sculptures? Where does the passion for creating fine art come from?
Alisa Sheinson: As a museum child, I started drawing at a very young age. I expressed my feelings through drawing and art, and at a young age I was already displaying my work in exhibitions.
My design studies at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design led me to a more intellectual field than art alone, incorporating interior design and graphic design, with insights about the psychology of audiences.
The interior design that I engage in today is an organic product of both worlds: the pure world of art which contains the hidden inner world, and the functional world.
Along with my design work, carrying out great projects with organic design that’s both powerful and functional, I have returned to art and creation.
My art today is a product of carving out my inner world, expressed in a translation of my dreams and thoughts; my inner self connects with nature and sculpts it into an illuminated sublime element.
In my work in recent years I create a world that speaks with all aspects of nature, where light is an integral part that creates a relationship, and through which the elements in the piece intensify one another.
Some of my work is characterized by huge light sculptures, activating the space around them with their bodies and through the projections of light that they create.
Art Market: Are you using those light sculptures in your interior design projects? Would you say that the two fields inspire each other and merge in your projects?
Alisa Sheinson: Interior design is based on flow within a structure, and in different projects I will always take the structure, its needs and its branding into account, along with audience movement and psychology.
I visualize the project as the flow of a river or a mountain canyon pass, and consider the minuses of the structure in favor of the strengths of the creation and the project.
All along the way, in every project I designed, the world of nature is quoted in one way or another, and it adds warmth and soul to the project.
Besides being an empowering and powerful motif, light has the ability to direct people and create movement among them, and therefore I will often use light as a hidden and/or visible guiding element to lead the audience. This might be manifested in a lighting strip on the ceiling or a large and significant lighting sculpture at a central point in the project that will characterize the space and dictate what occurs within it.
Art Market: How would you describe your artistic style?
Alisa Sheinson: Being caught between material and experiential memory. In my latest creations, sea rocks were chosen from a stormy shore on which the sea crashed, forming sculptures from them. I chose to take the rocks as they are, with no change or processing, and perpetuated them against a symbolical background that refines memory and experience.
This way of looking at things is expressed in most of my work, and the light and the matter that are taken from an experience in nature are inseparable key tools, and by means of the light, the matter comes to life. “When light comes, darkness disappears.”
ALISA SHEINSON. Pink Bloosom. Made of molding kaktos in epoxy and resin, pink background lighted by leds elements. 40 x 40 cm © Art Market Magazine
Art Market: Let’s talk about your ‘Organic Series’. What is the general idea behind the series, and how did you get inspired to create them?
Alisa Sheinson: My last exhibition was based on a translation of nature into matter with changing transparency and its projection onto experiential situations, with light penetrating both layers.
The elements presented were taken from casts of cactuses, rocks from the sea, corals, and they expressed experiences and emotions such as childhood longing, wish fulfillment, stepping barefoot on soft sand, the power of the sea, blossoming and prosperity. Wild nature is a metaphor for the character of man and our existence in this wonderful world.
ALISA SHEINSON. Reflection. Coping 3D Cactus and casting in various materials. Epoxy, and resin, this handcrafted lighted by leds elements. 60 x 60 cm © Art Market Magazine
Art Market: Tell us about the materials and the workflow of creating each artwork, from the point of the idea on to the stage of the complete piece of art.
Alisa Sheinson: I love the sea. My house was chosen to be close to the beach. The sea is in my blood and in my soul; it provides me with inspiration and is a source of both strength and calmness.
Wherever I go, I take a camera with me and eternalize my open conversation with the sea. My footprints on the sand, the waves constantly crashing on the rocks and sculpting them, versus the rocks’ growing durability in the face of each wave, branches swept along by the sea in repetitive motions, and more images and a world of experiences that the sea grants me as a person and to the world. While wandering on one of the stormy beaches, I created a dialogue between the rocks and the waves that pounded them, I collected rocks that tell the story of the sea in a sublime manner. The final product is the essence of time, wind, imagination and light.
The materials with which I cast were rocks, cactuses are polymers, and at the same time, I used digital prints of my paintings and photographs I took.
Every creative process begins with a great idea, which is followed by an artistic investigation on how to express nature in the most accurate way using the provided materials and light, and on how to create symbiotic relations between the two. I start with sketches and drawings, distinguishing and characterizing each and every element that conveys within itself a variety of shapes by means of the nature of the material, its three-dimensionality, its color, and its other characteristics, which create some sort of a revelation.
The chosen material, in combination with the photographs, the three-dimensionality, and the light, create infinite layers of interest.
ALISA SHEINSON. Reflection. Coping 3D Cactus and casting in various materials. Epoxy, and resin, this handcrafted lighted by leds elements. 60 x 60 cm © Art Market Magazine
Art Market: The creation of light Sculptures is extremely unique and advanced. We can experience the influence of light on the sculpture as well as on the environment surrounding it. In one of your past interviews, you said: “The ‘Organic series’ expresses a frozen organic element, which the light brings back to life ”.
Would you say that the sculpture itself is dependent on the lightning surrounding it? And what is the importance of the color of light you chose for each artwork?
Alisa Sheinson: The light is a sculpture in and of itself. Its inclusion in the sculpture creates a new dimension that captures the observer, enters his heart, and intensifies the experience to an almost divine degree.
The light creates an intangible sensation that awakens memories, thus intensifying the artistic and experiential message.
ALISA SHEINSON. Dialog. Made of Branches from stream water and other pieces plants, molding in epoxy, and resin, this handcrafted lighted by leds elements. 200 x 200 cm © Art Market Magazine
Art Market: Amongst your sculptures, we can also find ‘Plastic Bags’, which are extraordinary in their manner and approach, as these are hyper-realistic sculptures. Tell us about these artworks.
ALISA SHEINSON. Sculpture. Plastic Bag. Made in epoxy, and resin. 60 x 40 cm. © Art Market Magazine
Alisa Sheinson: “Plastic Bag” was born after a day’s shopping in the market where I bought 2 goldfish in a clear bag. On my way home, I examined the bag and the fragments of sunlight gently hitting the water (the sun in Israel is strong and cheery). The combination of light, water and bag created a stunning visual experience. I wanted to multiply and intensify the bag and express this wonderful richness on a large scale, the main motif being the light playing on the edges of the material, creating the wondrous trembling of water in the clear bag and the penetration of sunlight into the bag, which grows and extends beyond its natural size.
Art Market: Are the sculptures are “One of a Kind” artworks? Do you also create “limited edition” series?
Alisa Sheinson: All of my light sculptures are available for global distribution in limited editions of up to 8 pieces, each piece signed and numbered, with a certificate of authenticity.
Website: www.alisa-lightart.com
email: alisa@alisa-sheinson.com
